EIB Powerline Installations Peculiarities and Benefits

Dr. Martin Grfe Busch-Jaeger Elektro GmbH Freisenbergstr. 2 58513 Ldenscheid (Germany) e-mail: Martin.Graefe@de.abb.com

Abstract
The EIB powerline system (EIB-PL) constitutes a useful supplement to twisted pair (EIB-TP) and offers new facilities. However, the (unfavourable) characteristics of "powerline" as a medium for data transmission result in some peculiarities of EIB-PL installations. These are discussed and some advice for planning EIB-PL installations is given. The benefits of the powerline medium are pointed out and the technique of combining EIB-PL with EIB-TP with the help of media couplers is described.

1.

Introduction

When modernizing the electrical installation of older homes and buildings with the help of the EIB often the required laying of additional bus cables is a fundamental drawback especially with buildings classified as a historical monument. A solution which suggests itself is to use the existing power-lines as a "bus cable" to provide a modern and comfortable installation without any new wiring. In this way powerline acquires a new area of application for the EIB. The physical and the link layer of EIB-PL had to be adapted to the peculiarities of a mains signaling system (high attenuation, disturbances, noise, etc.) and show a slightly different behaviour in comparison to their TP counterparts. In order to employ the medium powerline in an optimal manner and to combine it with TP one should know the medium specific properties.

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EIB Powerline Installations Peculiarities and Benefits

2.

Properties of the Medium Powerline and their Impact on EIB-PL

2.1. Attenuation The probably most important fact of powerline as a transmission channel is the high attenuation which results in a wide dynamic signal range of typically 60 dB and even more. This makes a reliable collision detection impossible (against contrary assertions). Imagine a device sending with approx. 1 V while receiving the signal of another device with less than 1 mV. Moreover a powerline device reduces the local impedance of the mains network while transmitting a telegram which additionally decreases the magnitude of incoming signals. For this reason collision avoidance was very important for the development of the physical and link layer for EIB-PL. The first step was to find a reliable mechanism for the "bus-in-use"-detection. This was done by a 16-bit preamble. Whenever these two bytes are detected the "bus" is locked until the end of the telegram or until the following data is rejected because it cannot be interpreted as a valid telegram. Only during the first eight bits of the preamble a collision is possible which in contrast to EIB-TP destroys both telegrams. On the bus of EIB-TP a logical "0" overwrites a "1". The acknowledge (ACK/NACK) response on multicasts (group telegrams) uses this fact. Due to the high attenuation of the powerline transmission channel and the employed modulation there is no similar effect for EIB-PL. So in PL systems only one device shall respond to a group telegram this is the task of the group responser. Each group address should have exactly one group responser (denoted by the MSB of the group address). If the attenuation within an EIB-PL system becomes to high (80 dB and more) a repeater must be added which replaces the phase coupler. In this case every telegram which is not confirmed by an ACK is repeated by the repeater instead of the BCU. For this reason each device in the system must know that a repeater is present to avoid collision of repeated telegrams.

2.2. Disturbances and Noise The great advantage of powerline is that it is accessible almost everywhere it is an open medium. However, at the same time this leads to its main drawback: Unlike the medium TP the "bus" of EIB-PL is "fouled" with a lot of disturbances of varying origins (e.g. motors, electronic transformers, switched mode power supplies, etc.). To overcome this problem EIBPL was endowed with an efficient error detection and correction. Each data byte is supplemented with four bits to get a redundancy which enables EIB-PL to correct one faulty bit every 10 ms. In order to achieve high reliability the gross data rate was set to 1200 bits/s and therefore 1/8 of the EIB-TP data rate. When making allowances for the error correction bits the net data rate is 800 bits/s while the net data rate of EIB-TP is about 6980 bits/s.

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EIB Powerline Installations Peculiarities and Benefits

2.3. Cross Talk As mentioned above powerline is an open medium and as such it has no clearly defined borders. Between different parts of the mains there is usually a high but finite attenuation. To prevent telegrams of one EIB-PL system from influencing another system the EIB-PL telegram is extended by a domain address (or system ID). Telegrams having a domain address that differs from the local one are rejected. Only with system broadcast telegrams (e.g. when reading or writing the physical address of a device) the domain address is ignored.

2.4. Structure of an EIB-PL Telegram The following figure shows the structure of a "normal" EIB-PL telegram including the preamble and the domain address (see above). 4 bits Training Sequ. 2 x 8 bits Preamble 8 x 12 bits Standard EIB Telegram + CS 12 bits Domain Addr.

D7

D6

D5

D4

D3

D2

D1

D0

E3

E2

E1

E0

Data

Error Correction

Task of the Training Sequence at the beginning of each telegram is to let the analog part of the powerline receiver adapt to the actual signal level. It contains no relevant data. There is neither a start or stop bit nor a parity bit. Instead the 8 data bits are followed by 4 error correction bits. So in comparison to EIB-TP each data "byte" of EIB-PL consists of 12 instead of 11 bits. The structure of an acknowledge (ACK) telegram is shown in the following figure: 4 bits Training Sequ. 2 x 8 bits Preamble 12 bits ACK

An ACK telegram contains no domain address because it can only refer to the preceding telegram.

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EIB Powerline Installations Peculiarities and Benefits

2.5. How to consider all this in EIB-PL installations At first each EIB-PL installation should be endowed with a mains filter (for each phase) to increase the signal attenuation between separate installations. A repeater or phase coupler should be used to obtain good coupling within that installation. mains filter L1 mains filter L2 mains filter L3 N to EIB-PL installation

Phase Coupler or Repeater

Although EIB-PL is endowed with a collision avoidance mechanism the fact that there is no collision detection must be taken into account when planning EIB-PL installations. The following constellations should be avoided: "bursts" of telegrams, e.g. produced by light scenes with status response telegrams many periodically sending devices (controlling applications) devices configured for a no-repeater-system in installations with a repeater more than one device in programming mode (which will get the system confused after the next programming step).

To avoid interferences between separated EIB-PL installations the domain address should be chosen carefully dont use always the same address. When planning light scenes the reduced data rate of EIB-PL should be considered. In many cases it is possible to decrease the number of telegrams by combining actions with multicasts whenever possible. Furthermore for each action a group responser should be defined in order to avoid unnecessarily repeated telegrams.

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EIB Powerline Installations Peculiarities and Benefits

3.

New Facilities with EIB-PL

3.1. Plug-in Applications In general the EIB-TP is restricted to fixed installations. However, in private homes it would be desirable to include standard-lamps in the EIB installation without providing a separate wire to single wall-sockets. It may also be a good idea to extend an "all-off" action to consumer electronic equipment like TVs. Because EIB-PL makes the bus accessible at every socket it is possible to control non-EIB equipment with the help of plug-in powerline devices.

A plug-in device for EIB-PL available as switch (10 A) or dimmer (300 W) ....... A further advantage of these devices is the flexibility they offer to the end-user: E.g. he can move the standard-lamp (or the TV) from one corner to another and plug it into another socket without the help of an installer.

3.2. Modernization without Renovation In many cases the modernization of the electrical installation is wanted but without a complete renovation of the building, either because the building cannot be closed (e.g. hospitals, hotels, etc.) or because it is classified as a historical monument (churches, city halls, etc.). The powerline technique make the EIB utilizable even in such buildings.

3.3. Step-by-Step Modernization of older Installations The modernization of an entire building with the help of the EIB implies high costs and with the EIB-TP a step-by-step introduction is nearly impossible. However, EIB-PL offers the facility to replace traditional switches by EIB devices without changing the wiring at all. In this way for example it is possible to introduce the EIB in the living room at first and then expand the functionality to other rooms and functions.

4.

Combining Powerline with Twisted Pair

Because twisted pair and powerline both have their pros and cons in certain cases it is the best way to combine both in order to find the most efficient realization for the required functionality. The connection between EIB-PL and EIB-TP can be established with the help of a media coupler.
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EIB Powerline Installations Peculiarities and Benefits

The powerline/twisted pair media coupler for DIN-rail mounting

The media coupler allows EIB-TP devices to communicate with EIB-PL devices. Each telegram received at the EIB-TP side that refers to the EIB-PL side is forwarded (and vice versa). A filter table determines which telegram (group address) is passed through from one side to the other. This table is automatically generated by the ETS and stored in the media coupler. At the powerline side the media coupler behaves like a repeater whenever a telegram is not confirmed by an ACK the media coupler repeats that telegram (on all three phases if connected). Devices should not be programmed "through" the media coupler but the programming must be done at each side for the relating devices. The media coupler itself must be programmed from the TP side.

5.

Large Scale EIB-PL installations

In extended EIB-PL installations with a lot of devices (e.g. large offices with almost independent areas) it is possible to make use of area couplers in oder to avoid high telegram load. In this case a structure should be chosen similar to that of EIB-TP installations with TP couplers: All area couplers are connected to one TP backbone which has a common power supply. Each PL area is connected to the mains via mains filters (see figure on next page). In this way an EIB-PL installation can be split either into 7 areas with up to 3825 devices each or 105 lines with 255 devices each. At the powerline side the area coupler takes on the task of a repeater. Therefore no additional phase coupler or repeater is needed. The mains filters are necessary to provide high signal attenuation between all areas. Nevertheless each area should have its own domain address to guarantee separation. Domain address and filter table are automatically generated by the ETS. All devices within one area must be programmed from inside this area the area couplers themselves must be programmed via the TP backbone.

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EIB Powerline Installations Peculiarities and Benefits

Power Supply + Chokes 2 mains (230 V) 3+1 TP backbone

area TP coupler PL

mains filter

area TP coupler PL

mains filter

EIB-PL area 1 EIB-PL device 1 230 V EIB-PL device 1

EIB-PL area 2

EIB-PL device 2

EIB-PL device 2

6.

Conclusions

With the help of EIB-PL the modernization of traditional installations has become rather simple providing all the facilities of the EIB without the need of a new wiring. However, the peculiarities of the powerline medium require a few concessions which basically show itself in form of a lower data rate and the lack of a collision detection. If the resulting advice for EIB-PL installations are applied the medium powerline opens up a new area of applications for the European Installation Bus.

References
[1] [2] C. Heite, R. Zapp: "Powernet Das neue EIB Medium", EIB-Proceedings 1997 C. Heite, R. Rosch: "Technology and current developments relating to the EIB-Powerline Medium", EIB Proceedings 1998

230 V
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